Florida church’s continuing, departing congregations to split on Good Friday
By Patrick Jean, Staff Writer The Layman Online, March 17, 2008
Peace River Presbytery has agreed to dismiss to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church on Good Friday the majority of the leadership, staff and congregation of a large southwest Florida church that sought to leave with its property from the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stephens, senior pastor and head of staff of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Fort Myers, Fla., said he, most of the elders, virtually the entire staff and more than 1,100 of the church’s 1,340 members will leave the church and the denomination March 21. Stephens will lead the inaugural worship services for New Hope Presbyterian Church on Easter Sunday, March 23.
The dismissal date was announced by the administrative commission for Covenant Church at Peace River Presbytery’s stated meeting Feb. 28. “We were just a short blip on the agenda,” Stephens said.
About the parties
Covenant Presbyterian Church in Fort Myers, Fla., was founded in 1962. It has 1,340 members. The Rev. Dr. Bill Stephens has been senior pastor and head of staff since October 2005.
Peace River Presbytery had 38 congregations with almost 21,000 members in 2006, the most recent year for which PCUSA statistics are available. Its headquarters is in North Port, Fla.
Of Covenant Church’s 1,340 members, 1,032 participated in a vote Feb. 3 to request dismissal from the PCUSA, Stephens said. Of those, 787 or 76 percent voted in favor of the request and 237 or 24 percent voted against it.
The presbytery called a special meeting Feb. 14 to address Covenant Church’s request to depart from the PCUSA for the transitional, non-geographic New Wineskins Presbytery of the EPC. In three votes, presbytery commissioners:
- Denied the request.
- Declared the church in schism.
- Created an administrative commission to negotiate with church members who want to remain in the PCUSA and allow for the transfer of other church members and clergy to the EPC/New Wineskins Presbytery.
Sharing church for six weeks
Stephens said he and the like-minded members of his congregation never planned to sue for the Covenant Church property. So, since Feb. 10, the departing and continuing Covenant congregations held separate worship services and shared office space. Offerings were kept separate, and payroll and operating programming were paid out of operating reserves, Stephens said.
Stephens wanted Peace River Presbytery to come up with a process where the two churches exist side-by-side on the Covenant Church campus, then to agree to dismiss the departing church to the EPC within four weeks, since the goal was to begin the new church on Easter Sunday in a new location. The presbytery seemed agreeable to that, he said.
The administrative commission for Covenant Church reported to presbytery commissioners Feb. 28 that everything went smoothly with negotiations and the agreed-upon dates in the process, Stephens said. The commission had met with both sides several times regarding the process, which was approved by presbytery commissioners, he said.
The Rev. Graham Hart, general presbyter of Peace River Presbytery, e-mailed to The Layman Online a copy of his statement that was included in the highlights of the presbytery meeting and in his weekly pastoral letter. Here is the full text of that statement:
“At the Feb. 28 regular presbytery meeting, a report from the administrative commission for Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) was given. The administrative commission noted with thanksgiving the spirit of cooperation in evidence among all the people at Covenant and reported that a memorandum of understanding had been signed providing for an orderly transition between now and March 21.
“On that date, the administrative commission will assume original jurisdiction, setting aside the current session of that church. Also on that date, the pastors and those members who have asked to leave the PCUSA will be dismissed to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. They will begin worshipping at another facility on Easter Sunday with the continuing Covenant (PCUSA) members celebrating Easter in the Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) sanctuary on McGregor Boulevard.”
The next step in the process, Stephens said, is buying items for New Hope Presbyterian Church from Covenant Church that the continuing congregation might not be interested in keeping.
“Essentially, Stu (Austin, associate pastor for missions and outreach) and I and the elders and all the members who are wishing to go, and right now, we have 1,101 – not members, people – who are interested in leaving were approved for dismissal to the EPC via the New Wineskins presbytery, with the effective date being March 21,” he said. “So we continue to co-labor here on property with the ‘loyal’ congregation and membership ’til that date.”
One last service together
The last time that the departing and continuing congregations officially spend together under the PCUSA umbrella will be at a joint worship service on Maundy Thursday, March 20.
“We will have a time of praying for each other and asking God to bless each other as we agree to part and go our separate ways,” Stephens said. “Kind of like Paul and Barnabas over John Mark.”
Stephens hopes the service will heal wounds created by the church’s split. “We’re going to worship together and take communion together, celebrate our parting together and pray for each other,” he said. “So, we’re hoping that will be a reconciliation kind of parting-of-the-ways.”
Members of the continuing Covenant Church are encouraged to attend the Maundy Thursday service, said Don Berglund and Deborah Maurer, co-moderators of the interim church council, in a letter posted on the church’s Web site. “This service will include a Christian blessing as the two congregations separate to go out into the world and continue God’s work,” they wrote.
The continuing Covenant Church’s first service after the split becomes official will take place at noon on Good Friday, March 21, Berglund and Maurer wrote. Two worship services are planned on Easter Sunday, March 23, they wrote.
The administrative commission will act as a temporary session for Covenant Church while the interim church council works to elect trustees, organize a Sunday school and initiate a new stewardship campaign, Berglund and Maurer wrote.
Berglund and Maurer expressed optimism for the future of the continuing Covenant Church. “Attendance is now up to nearly 300 people, with a choir of over 30 members,” they wrote. “We anticipate that attendance will quickly grow to over 400.”
In the letter, the interim church council co-moderators also sought to answer any continuing questions about PCUSA theology and doctrine.
“Despite what you may have heard over the past year, we in the PCUSA do believe that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, and we do believe in the Trinity of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,” they wrote. “If you have any questions or would like more detail, we urge you to view a 24-minute PCUSA DVD entitled ‘Together in Ministry and Mission’ … .
“Also,” they wrote, “contrary to the alarm that was raised regarding weakening PCUSA adherence to ordination standards, we would like you to kno
w that on Feb. 11, 2008, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (GAPJC), the PCUSA ‘supreme court,’ issued a landmark decision that candidates for ordination must comply with the sexual behavior standards of the PCUSA, even if they disagree in conscience with them.”
‘Something God-sized in store for us’
As for New Hope Presbyterian Church, “everything’s working” regarding the church’s Easter Sunday launch, Stephens said. Three traditional services are planned that morning at a site just two miles south of Covenant Church on the same street (McGregor Boulevard) as Covenant Church, he said.
New Hope Church is renting its facilities from a 140-member Brazilian Assembly of God congregation who bought a former Church of Christ campus that is too big for them, Stephens said.
“They’re going to benefit because we’re going to pay them $10,000 a month in rent, plus utilities,” he said. “And we’re going to benefit from having a 600-seat sanctuary and lots of Sunday school classroom space and office space and all that. So, we think it’s a good relationship for all sides. … They need cash, and we need space.”
Worship times for the two churches won’t overlap because the Brazilian Assembly of God worships on Sunday evenings, Stephens said. “They’re also going to give us other times during the week for MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and women’s Bible studies and some things like that,” he said.
“We are excited,” Stephens said. “We believe God has something God-sized in store for us. My people were willing to push off from the shoreline and out into the deep. I’ve been humbled and surprised by the huge number of folks that are willing to sign up and go with us. Lots of them are older. There are over 1,100 that say that they’re willing to relocate with us. It’s just huge.
“For them to be willing to relocate with us and start over, I just think is a huge commitment of support and trust, and the leadership is just very honored by that,” he said. “We’re excited about what the future is going to bring. Those who are staying behind are kind of resentful and angry, and those who are leaving are excited and set free. I’m trying to walk softly around here, and not be too excited in their presence. But leadership is excited.”
Patrick Jean is a staff writer for The Layman and The Layman Online. He can be reached at pjean@layman.org.